Environmentally friendly Energy Efficient House?

Question

We are in the process of building a new home. I've opted for the bamboo floors, energy star appliances, front load washer/dryer, programmable thermostat etc. is there anything else I can do to make my home more environmentally friendly and energy efficient? Thank you!

Answer 1

use additional insulation, you can "blow it in" so you don't have to tear the walls.

Use weather stripping on windows and doors.

Use double pain windows with low e tinting.

There is a product called the "little gray box" it is a timer for the water heater that you program, to start heating the water about two hours before you would need it. Like 2 hours before you wake up, or two hours before you would take a shower at night. The long and short is that it prevents the water from being heated and cool down and reheated while you are not using it.

There is a fan that is desinged to pull all the air out of the house.. like during the summer when the evenings are cool, you crack the windows and turn on the fan. The fan will suck out all of the hot air from the day, and blows it out the attic vents. This lowers the amount of energy used to cool the house.

Zone heating. Set the theromstat on the house at about 63 degrees, put either area heatlers in all the areas of the house that are used most (ei living room, bedrooms and possible dining room) and like ventless fire boxes (for gas ,and oil filled radiant heaters for electric, to heat the room that are in use to 72 degrees or whatever.

Go with radiant heating througout the house, pipes run along the baseboards of the room and heat the floor and then the furniture and then rises.. Central heating heats the air and then the hot air rises leaving the cool air at your level.

I hope that helps some!

Answer 2

i love earth sheltered houses. they are so eficient and environmentaly friendly that woodland animals will walk right over your roof without realizing their is a house there. the most eficiant one i have seen is the umbrella house. basicly it is a house with a roof much larger than the rest of the house the roof is covered with insulation and a rubber sheet then that is covered with a few feet of dirt. when finished the whole thing looks like a gentle grassy hill with a driveway. on a t v show i also saw a man build a house out of old beer and soda bottles and cement. another man built a house the same way using alluminum beer cans he colected , he claims to have drank that much beer. if you live in a desert do not build a house with a fire place, if their is only one tree within a hundred miles of u leave it there. solar panels and a direct current system running your house is great but it requires some maintanance and know how to do. most people are to busy with other things to be changing batterys cleaning solar panels and checking voltage gauges and so forth. i once saw a temple in the desert it had a mile long tunel conected to its basement and the tunel was kept half way full of water. when the heat of the sun bore down on the building with hundreds of people going into it the cool moist air would be sucked up out of the tunnel into the temple so everybody was cool and comfortable. no elcetricy was expended in the proces. vikings used to turn old boats upside down cut a doorway into the side and a hole for the chimny and , instant house. doing this with an old aircraft carrier could build u an instant city.

Answer 3

I am just at the start of collecting info to do the same. It sounds like your doing great so far. A huge thing for us is going solar of course but also the other day I found (while looking for anti graffiti clearcoat for a ball wall mural at the school) a couple different paint suppliers that offer their own int/ext paints with a add. of plastic like powder or flecks (they don't show) that insulates your home.You can also buy it to put in your own paint that you or your contractor buy- I'm sorry I can't name it for you but the article I saw read that it can help with insulating-esp if you use it inside and out, sealing and length of time the paint lasts too- I was intrigued....GOOD LUCK ON YOUR HOME!

Answer 4

have extra insulation added to the walls and ceiling, as much as possible. if you have a crawl space, insulate the floors. add solar panels, have alot of south facing windows. install a pellet stove.